CAFÉ CINNAMON — Restaurant in Tokyo

For all the low rated reviews in English - the cafe is actually a themed cafe for a game called "Ensemble Stars!!". Because it's one of the top mobile game franchises in Japan, reservations are a battle to get for the fans and the system is reservation ONLY, by online lottery, weeks in advance. Walk-ins are never welcome, and the store should probably have a placard to better communicate that to foreigners rather than the small line in English on the sign out front. If you get lucky and they happen to have cancellations, it does seem possible to snap up a slot day-of through the site (they changed the system after I went, so not quite sure how it works now). The empty tables are because the staff needs a rest/cleaning period between reservation periods.

In regards to as far as theme cafes go, this is definitely one of the top cafes. While you won't get cutely decorated character food, the food tastes REAL compared to the majority of theme cafes, and you can actually have an enjoyable meal here. The bonus is that you can pretend everything is cooked by a certain Shiina Niki & that Ensemble Square is real! Hearing bossa nova/acoustic renditions of enstars songs is also treat. If you're a fan and are heading to Tokyo, you should 10000% try for a reservation...

I love ensemble stars, so I had to make sure to come to this cafe during my latest trip to Tokyo. The food is delicious and much better than other theme cafes. I ended up going two times for meals and one time during bar time. Even if you miss the lottery entry period, you can check for vacancies during that month and follow their twitter to see if there are available spots so it’s easy to get in.

The only difficulty for foreigners might be that the website won’t work (I suppose on foreign phones?) unless you are using Japanese wifi. I have softbank sim card and mobile data, and that doesn’t even work, so it has caused some difficulty when you need to check in to your reservation when you arrive to the cafe. The staff were very helpful and understanding, so it didn’t cause too much of an issue. Now I just make sure to stop somewhere nearby that has free wifi right before I go to the cafe. It would be nice if the cafe had wifi available at least just to...

It’s really difficult to get tickets for the café and I was really looking forward to it but I was super disappointed when I got here, sadly…

The menu is overall pretty basic (fries, burgers, classic desserts) and lacks a spark of originality - especially for the prices! Our hot drinks were cold by the time our dessert arrived cause it took a long time.

Also, I was planning on making a short video of the café for social media but right after we cut in the cake with our spoon, the staff asked us to stop filming and to delete our videos. I didn’t understand why because it would simply be free promotion for them - but okay, sure. This sadly meant that I was even unable to take any photos of our food and drinks cause I was relying on videos only.

I left the café feeling sad, disappointed and almost like ‘robbed’. Maybe I just had too high expectations? - but I just wanted to enjoy my order and...